9 New Dad Tips for Kevin

Today's guest post is brought to you by Ricky Anderson of RickyAnderson.Net. Check out his blog HERE. Follow him on Twitter HERE.

Enjoy!

------------------

Photo used courtesy of Creative Commons user sunsurfr

So you're going to be a dad...now what?

Here's what you need to know that nobody tells you ahead of time:

• You will lower your personal standards of cleanliness. Bodily fluids used to freak me out. Now it's hardly worth wiping if it isn't brown.
• Your hearing will evolve. If you're a sound sleeper now, you won't be for long. You'll listen for every breath on that baby monitor. However, you won't be able to hear your wife as well as you once did ("Get up, Honey. It's your turn.").
• Everyone but you will be an expert on your son's problems, progress and preferences. It will drive you insane. They mean well, so try not to beat any of them with a large piece of furniture. 
• Unless they're the kind that say the source of every problem is teething. These people will tell you that your son is teething while he's still coming out of the womb, and they won't stop until 10 months later when he actually has a tooth, and then they'll say "See? I told you so." Beat these people with the couch they're expertly sitting on. They deserve it.
• You will be tired. A lot. For a long time.
• And you won't care. Not one bit.
• Your blog will become a 'mommy blog' approximately 4 seconds after that last push. And you will not be ashamed.
• If you start trying to put the car seat in now, you might be finished by the time Aidan comes.
• You cannot childproof your home. You think you can, but you are wrong.
• Babies cannot move for a few months. Take advantage of this. You can leave them anywhere - on a table, on the roof, on top of your car - and they will be there when you get back.
• Probably.
• You'll be the biggest man in Aidan's life. He won't so much as sneeze without looking to you for your reaction. Build him up and instruct him accordingly.

Congratulations, Kevin! You'll do great...or at least not too bad.

What tips do you have for Kevin?

More Blogging Olympics - Plus a Breaking Bad Recap

Artwork by Wes Molebash

Yesterday, I made you guys aware of a competition going on at RobShep.com that I'm involved in called the Blogging All-Star Challenge.

So far, the race is neck-and-neck. Many of you have voted already, but we still need your help.

If you haven't voted yet, you can go cast your vote for Team Ricky HERE. If you have already voted, first off, thank you. Second, we can still use your help as you try and rally as much support from your friends and cyberbuddies on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest and any other internet domain where you spend time socializing.

For crying out loud. Rob has Jon Acuff on his squad. Are you kidding me? That guy can tweet about a booger he picked that looks like Elvis and get 40 million retweets! There's no way this competition should be close...but it totally is, and it's because you guys are awesome.

So keep up the good work, and remember, it's not over until the end of the week.

As a quick aside, I wanted to remind you guys to check out my weekly recap of the latest episode of Breaking Bad -- here.

To inspire you to keep chugging along and to evoke a bit of laughter, here's an incredible video put together by fellow Team Ricky member Tor Constantino:

The Blogging All-Star Challenge

Ricky vs. Rob: The Epic Battle of the Century...or at least this week.

A few weeks ago, Ricky Anderson emailed me to inform me he'd picked me for his All-Star team. I dusted off the cleats and found my old glove, just in time to find out that we were not going to be playing softball (much to my dismay), but instead, we were going to be taking part in an online popularity contest.

Here's the deal.

Rob Shepherd and Ricky have both selected a list of their favorite bloggers on the whole wide world webernets.

It should be noted that Ricky, a guy I just met on the internet a few months ago and have never met in person, picked me. Rob, a guy who I have personally known for over 18 years, did not. I'm not bitter about that. Not at all.

Moving right along.